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Hurricane Michael Hits Panama City Beach; Hurricane Report from Destin; Hurricane Michael Hits as Category Four. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 10, 2018 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: In the Oval Office from FEMA officials as one of the most powerful hurricanes in United States history, that were (ph), to hit a coast gets ready to make landfall in the coming minutes. They'll be making -- this hurricane will make landfall in Florida.

Hurricane Michael lashing northwest Florida right now. Thousands of people have been evacuated ahead of the storm, but many more are now sheltered in place, as 150-mile-per-hour winds tear through coastal communities. The governor admitting the area could suffer, quote, unimaginable devastation.

Our correspondents are spread out across the area to bring you the very latest. We're in Panama City, right where the leading edge of the storm is crashing into the coast in Destin, Santa Rosa Beach, Apalachicola, all areas under siege by the storm. And Tallahassee, we're going to be hearing directly from Florida's governor with a sobering message for Florida residents.

Let's begin in Panama City Beach right now where Hurricane Michael is hitting the area with full force. Our national correspondent Dianne Gallagher is there for us.

Tell us what you're experiencing, Dianne, and I want you to be very careful over there.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Wolf.

Yes, we're being extremely safe right now. If we need to get inside, we can cut this sort and walk a few feet into a safe area.

But, look, we're experiencing some pretty relentless bands of wind right now with really driving rain. It sounds like a cliche, some stereotypical words to use, but I don't have anything else to describe the wind. It almost feels like little needles are pricking my skin with (INAUDIBLE) rainfall (INAUDIBLE) and you have these (INAUDIBLE) that just smack you in the face.

And this isn't the worst of it. This is just the beginning of it here in Panama City Beach.

I want you to take a look behind me. And this is actually (INAUDIBLE) -- BLITZER: All right, I think, unfortunately, we've lost Dianne's audio.

You can see these pictures. These are awful pictures. If Dianne -- let's see if we can hear her.

GALLAGHER: It's amazing that these trees are blowing down like this.

Now, look we have been on the lookout for debris as it's been coming down. We had a drain come off of this area here, flying away with the wind. We've seen other parts of metal sheets that have been coming this way.

Now, we started the day off actually on the shore in Panama City Beach, on the lower grand lagoon area, if you're familiar with the island. The structure we were in, we could have probably ridden out a category two. We could have ridden out a category two. We could not ride out a category four hurricane in that structure. The (INAUDIBLE) --

BLITZER: All right, once again, we've lost audio with Dianne. We're going to get back to her.

Jennifer Gray is at the CNN weather center for us.

Jennifer, you're watching and we're going to keep this video up, hopefully we'll be able to reconnect, but you can see what's going on over there.

What's the latest information you're getting from the authorities?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, this is an incredible, powerful storm and the leading edge of that eyewall is coming ashore near Panama City and points to the east. Now, the center of the storm is about 16 to 18 miles across. This is not the official landfall. That won't happen for a little while longer. But that outer -- that inner eyewall is starting to make its way onshore. And I'm going to highlight some of these areas so you can get a better idea.

This is Panama City. That's where Dianne is. Of course this is the eye of the storm. You can see that quite clearly. And you can see where this is sort of headed in these areas say from Panama City over to Mexico Beach. These areas in between are going to experience the eye of the storm. They're going to get clearing. They could possibly see blue sky.

But then don't go outside, don't let that deceive you, because you've got the whole backside of this storm to contend with. And also keep in mind that this storm is very symmetrical. We have hurricane force winds that extend 45 miles from the center on either side. And so that's about a 90 mile swathe that's going to get the hurricane force winds. Tropical storm force winds extend about 175 miles from the center.

And all of these areas from the center of the storm to the east, now I'll sort of outline the state, they're all going to get eight to 13 feet of storm surge, Wolf. Right now we've seen anywhere from say six to eight feet in Apalachicola, which is right there. That's expected to possibly double from what it is now. It's going to be in a lot of people's second floor.

Also keep in mind, we have had wind reports already of 89 miles per hour in Apalachicola. The Port of St. Joe has already had a wind gusts of over 100 miles per hour. You can see the trees in that shot next to me. A lot -- the leaves are still on the trees, of course, across the south. We are going to see a lot of trees down. They're going to snap. And so people that don't have shutters on their windows, you need to stay away from the windows because the limbs can act like projectiles in storms like this.

Also keep in mind, don't let your guard down if you're in south Georgia. This is going to be a category two storm this evening in south Georgia. So we're going to have hurricane force winds there, torrential rain, of course, as this continues to move to the east, Wolf.

[13:05:12] So this is a very, very dangerous storm. I would say from now to the next four hours or so it's going to be the most crucial time with this storm for people to stay safe, hunker down and if you've chosen to stay, you're just going to have to ride it out at this point, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, this is a real, real, very, very dangerous monster.

Stand by for a moment.

Brian Todd is in Panama City Beach for us as well.

Brian, what are you seeing? What are you hearing?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it's hard to put into words just how violent this storm has just turned in the last few minutes. We got off of Panama City Beach and came about a block and a half inland.

I'm going to show you some of the -- just some of the violent contortions of the trees over here and the power lines. This structure where we're transmitting from could lose power any second. But if you see some of the power lines shaking in the wind here, that's what we're looking at as conditions here have really deteriorated in just the last few minutes.

They are expected widespread power outages. They've already had some 50,000 customers without power. That's going to be a drop in the bucket compared to what they're going to have.

I'm going to take you over here a little bit. Just look at the violence with which these trees are shaking here.

I'm -- our photojournalist, Adolpha Abara (ph), is just inside a garage. I'm a few feet away. I can't walk too much further out because it's so dangerous here. And this is the point where you have to start watching. You know, as I'm talking to you, I've got to keep looking up because of flying debris all over the place. I just saw a tarp go flying over there. I've got to always kind of look around here just to make sure there's nothing coming straight at me.

But you see, Wolf, the contortion of these pine trees. Now, these are fairly thin pine trees, but this one over here just about snapped a few minutes ago and came crashing down on that house. So that's something we're going to be watching for. Some of the palm trees, like this one, a little more sturdy and can hold up. But you see some of the palm trees down there are starting to shake a little bit.

You know, they -- first responders, this is the time when they're telling everybody, don't call us now. If you call us, we cannot come and get to you. It is simply too dangerous. They were hoping that a lot of people would evacuate. They think that a lot of people did heed the call to evacuate. Only about 4,000 people are in the shelters here in the Florida panhandle area. But, you know, and officials here wanted many more people to get into those shelters. But, right now, too dangerous to move around, Wolf.

BLITZER: Stand by, Brian.

John Berman is in Panama City Beach for us as well.

What's the latest where you are, John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ferocious winds have picked up over the last 10, 15 minutes as Brian Todd was saying. The winds simply bolting into your face right now like small razor blades.

The power is out. We've heard transformer explosions all across this part of Panama City Beach, where we are. The water is rising on the roadways. The rain has been falling consistently. It's a very flat area. So these roads flood very, very easily.

If you are -- if you have not evacuated at this point, they have told you to stay in your homes. And I can tell you, I see why, because this wind is simply so strong. It would be very hard to control a vehicle on these roads right now.

I'm just taking a look around because one of the main concerns in a storm like this is the debris. Imagine small pieces of wood, signs, rakes. We saw a rake out here a moment ago flying along at 100 miles per hour or so. That is a major concern at this point.

And this is just the beginning. We're just five, 10 minutes away, maybe a little more, from this eyewall making landfall here, Wolf.

The city of Panama City Beach, it's home to about 12,000 people normally, and then tens of thousands of tourists. It does seem as if all the tourists got out. The hotels here, all closed. The restaurants, all closed. The tourists left. That's good. But the residents, as you've been hearing, that's a big concern here. Maybe only half of them left. There could be several thousands people who decided to stay in their homes. So many of the people we talked to made the decision to stay when it was a category two storm because that's what it was most of the day yesterday. It was a category two storm. They went to sleep. They thought they could ride this out. They woke up to the news it was a category four storm. And these winds speeds simply keep on getting stronger and stronger,

140, 150 miles per hour, Wolf, as this storm approaches the land and it will stay that way as it moves up the coast, passing maybe Tallahassee. So this wind could be a big concern, not just here along the coast, but also in cities like Tallahassee, known for their gorgeous oak canopies, with those giant trees. And I just can't imagine it's going to withstand the kind of wind we're seeing here, Wolf.

[13:09:58] If it picks up that much more than this, it will be hard to stay outside. We are seeing these wind speeds get stronger and strong.

Again, it's been some time since I last had power. I haven't seen pictures from the coast itself. The beach is about one mile this way. When I was there a few hours ago, the ocean was already lapping up to the edge of the beach. I have to believe the wind is pushing it well beyond the sand right now. And that water, that storm surge, has got to be pushing into some of those low-lying homes, those first floors. A storm surge is some nine feet will almost certainly flood those coastal areas. So that's what the concern is there, even as we're dealing with the wind here even a mile inland.

I apologize if I'm shouting, Wolf. It's hard to know -- it's hard to know if I can be heard over the force of this wind.

I'm looking at the trees here bending in this wind already. Don't know what it will take to get them to break. Again, one of the causes of concern here as we look around is the potential for the flying debris.

The city says it was ready. It's got things staged for after the storm. But that's after. The next several hours, of this kind of wind will be very punishing and I think will be a long couple of hours here, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, we hear you just fine, John. And I want you to be, obviously, very, very careful. Our viewers here in the United States and around the world, they're worried about you. They're worried about all of our correspondents.

And just reassure them, you do have a secure area, once it gets really, really awful, you'll be able to go inside and be protected, right?

BERMAN: That's exactly right, Wolf. I'm here at a hotel. We actually moved locations this morning. We did not feel we were in a safe enough place along the water's edge this morning. So we came about a mile inland to a building that I do think can withstand the winds that we're seeing here.

I keep looking around. I apologize for that, Wolf. I hear a little bit of rattling here and there. That's our concern. If you start to see gutters, if you start to see metal being pulled off any of the walls here, then we will get inside.

The door is just a matter of 20 feet away from where I am. I can run in at a moment's notice. We do want people to see what the strength of a storm like this

clearly means, though.

The wind is piercing. I can't look to my right. You can see my right elbow here. I can't look in that direction. The wind is simply too fierce in that direction. If I look over there, the rain will just get right into my eyes, too strong to look over there. So that's why I'm facing this way.

But, yes, Wolf, we've got a plan. You can go inside these buildings. So many of the buildings in Florida were built after Hurricane Andrew, which was such a powerful storm. The codes were raised so that most of the buildings here built in the last 20 years hopefully, hopefully can withstand a storm the power of which we're about to see over the next hour or so as Hurricane Michael makes landfall.

Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, we're all worried about that flying debris, which can be so, so dangerous.

All right, go protect yourself. Be careful over there, John Berman. We see you. We're going to keep your shot up from where you are. But, we'll get back to you, I am sure. John Berman on the scene for us.

Erica Hill is also on the scene for us. She's in Destin, where winds are also picking up right now.

What are you seeing, Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they certainly are, Wolf.

So where we are in Destin -- so we're about 40, 45 miles to the west of where John is. And we are definitely starting to feel and see this storm. It's really picked up over the last -- certainly the last 20 minutes, but even a little bit before then. And we are expecting, according to local officials who just updated us from Okaloosa County, they are expecting these conditions to last at least through 5:00 p.m. local time. So through 6:00 p.m. Eastern.

And what we're also hearing from folks here on the ground, in terms of evacuations, there's been a lot made about whether there was enough time, whether people got out. Locally, they can't give us exactly numbers of how many people left, but as John was talking about that being a tourist destination, Destin is as well. The population here, 13,700 or so, but that swells, tens of thousands of visitors each year.

And this is still in the season for them. It used to be during the summer. But as officials told me yesterday, this is now a year-round destination. This is the middle of the fall break season for a lot of schools in the south. So there were a number of tourists here. Some of the hotels shutting down, along with restaurants and offices yesterday by noon. And officials tell me they were confident that a number of tourists left. That said, I've spoken to a few who didn't. One woman from Maryland

telling me she's nervous. She didn't know how else to say it, but she felt that she was comfortable in the condo where she was staying. There's been a lot of talk about power as well. So the power has begun to flicker here where we are in Destin.

We actually just got the latest update from Gulf Power, who told us in the last few minutes they do expect that in many areas, as many as 225,000 people will be without power after this storm and then in many of the hardest hit areas. That could last for weeks. They expect that they will have to be rebuilding systems during those outages, telling us that they have folks from 15 different states who are ready to come in as soon as the coast is clear. They can't get out there. They can't begin working on anything, though, until the winds are below 30 miles an hour.

[13:15:08] We also heard from Secretary Nielson who said that there were folks from 14 different states who are positioned, ready to come in as well here and help. And that's what you'll hear from local officials. Here in Okaloosa County telling us just a short time ago, in their latest briefing, another reason they are urging folks -- obviously now it's too late to get out, but they're also urging folks to stay put after this storm has passed because they need to check the roads. You need to have the all clear from local officials so that they can clear pathways for first responders, for emergency vehicles, and also to eventually get all of these other resources in to begin to clean up the damage, Wolf.

BLITZER: Erica, we're going to get back to you. Erica Hill is in Destin.

John Berman is in Panama City Beach for us.

John, I know you're a very, very cautious journalist and there's no danger right now, but once it gets really dangerous -- this is supposed to make landfall, Hurricane Michael, this hour at some point, obviously you'll go inside and be protected.

But what else are you feeling and seeing right now?

BERMAN: Wolf, we're feeling this heavy, sustained wind. And I don't know any other way to describe it other than just this heavy, leaning force, consistently against the body here in the piercing rain on your face. At this point, it really seems to be beyond the bands. It seems to be a consistent, forceful wind as the eyewall moves ever closer to the shore. But it has picked up.

I was in Hurricane Florence a few weeks ago. This is stronger. I'm already feeling wind speeds stronger than Hurricane Florence at its height. That was a category one storm. The rain there, obviously, and the flooding was a major issue. Here it's the storm surge, which is being seen on the coast, and this wind speed before the eyewall (INAUDIBLE) to be 145, 150 miles an hour and we are now feeling it, Wolf. I mean the wind speed here very, very strong.

As you said, if it gets to be too fierce, we will go inside. There is a safe place in the building here.

The tropical storm force winds were extending way beyond the center of this storm, even as the eye approaches Panama City Beach, where I am.

I want to check in with my colleague Brooke Baldwin who's in Destin.

Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John, yes, we're -- so we're about 40, 45 miles west of you. And this is actually where a lot of people in PCB, Panama City Beach, have come to thinking they'd be seeking refuge here in Destin. And I'm with Taka (ph), my photojournalist, and we just wanted to step outside from behind a building where we've really been protected from a lot of this wind.

Check this out. The -- we're in this inlet, right? So on the other side of this berm is the Gulf of Mexico. And just in the last half hour, we've really started to see some of these white caps and these waves picking up, which is really the harbinger of things to come, right?

So this storm right around 3 feet storm surge as of now in the Destin area. We're told four to eight. The rain has been coming down obviously consistently for hours and hours and hours. But, periodically, you know, you really are seeing this water hitting the top of this dock. Just -- here you go, just to give you some perspective of what we're seeing close to the ocean here in Destin.

You know, this is on the outer western edge, right? So a lot of the people I talked to earlier today were saying they feel safe. A lot of people have been here during Opal, that was 1995, and the thing with this storm is, you know, a lot of folks in the panhandle, they're used to storms coming up and coming up quickly, right? A lot of people woke up Monday morning and realized there was a hurricane coming, but it wasn't until this morning when they woke up and it was wham a category four. And so a lot of people in the Destin area, they feel relatively safe. They know how to handle hurricanes. But, obviously, taking precaution.

And the worst of it, Wolf and John, it sounds like John is really starting to feel it, is yet to come, about a half hour from now, and I'll be here for two hours outside of my own show, so we'll be riding the storm during that entire time here from Destin.

Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: All right, thanks, Brooke. We'll get back to you soon and we'll look forward to getting more of your reports. Once again, Brooke, be careful.

John, you're still with us. Tell us more.

BERMAN: All right, Wolf, I just happened to notice, I looked down and realized that I'm standing in a couple of inches of water already. The water now flowing in from all of this rain. This isn't the storm surge. It's just the immense amount of rain and then the wind is also ferocious.

I'm going to bring in Dianne Gallagher here, who's with me as well.

Dianne, you've been here for a few days. Hopefully they can hear us in this mic. We're going to try to conduct an interview in an 100 mile an hour winds.

You've been speaking to city officials. What's their sense?

GALLAGHER: John, look, the sense for everybody, and I can hold this if you want and block the wind a little bit for your face right now.

[13:20:03] But, look, the sense that they have right now is that they need their community that stay put, right? Obviously people want to take pictures. They want to get video of this. I'm already seeing stuff show up online of videos that people should not be taking. They are out on the beaches. And that's just not a smart move. It's one thing if you didn't evacuate. I understand that. There are a lot of reason why people didn't do it. If your reason was riding the hurricane out, probably not the smartest thing. But there are financial reasons. There are sicknesses, handicap, stuff like that. But there's no reason for you to be out taking pictures and videos right now.

Now, officials have said that we're starting to see these winds and the storm surge affect Panama City Beach. The bridges have been closed for some time now. No one can get on the island. No one can get off the island.

But we're still going to be in this for a couple of hours here. So we're just starting to see what is going to be the worst of this right here. In fact, our -- one of our producers here, Devin Sayers (ph), is watching a very large piece, a very heavy debris, that's far off to the right of us but trying to prevent it from coming over here. (INAUDIBLE) we're aware of what's going on.

You know, I think people just see us out here and they think that we're going crazy being out in the hurricane, but we have a very large team of professionals who know what they're doing to make sure that we're going to be safe. And you guys don't if you're out there doing the same. I mean -- yes, so.

BERMAN: Dianne, I keep looking away. It's not because I'm being rude, it's because I can't look in this direction because the wind is simply blowing so much.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

BERMAN: They're pointing up right now. We're going to come a little -- a few steps this way --

GALLAGHER: We're going to come a little -- here, yes, yes, let's move in some.

BERMAN: Because one of these trees is blowing just a little bit.

You can see --

GALLAGHER: Look at the palm.

BERMAN: You can see the palm over there blowing. You can see everything beginning to go.

Dianne, if you can hear me, it's about 12,000 people leave in PCB, Panama City Beach, on a normal time.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

BERMAN: My understanding, speaking to some of the officials that you were speaking to, they think about half the residents are still here.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

BERMAN: They think there are only about 4,000 people who have gone to the shelters in this part of the state completely. So not many people are in these public shelters.

GALLAGHER: No. And, look, so the thing is, is that some of the shelters did fill up all the way. They opened new shelters. Those didn't. And there were a lot of people -- we have talked about this -- I know that Jennifer had said people knew this was going to be a strong storm. But in the minds of people who were thinking, I live here, I've been through a storm before, they thought category two, I can do that.

Category four is a different monster, at Governor Rick Scott has said. And they woke up this morning, often many of them too late. It was already too late. Bay County authorities were no longer responding. We've been up a very long time, so it seems like this has been going on a long time. But it's still fairly early in the day. And so a lot of those people, it was too late for them to get to shelters this morning once they came in.

When winds like this start to come around, you can't walk to the shelter. We're having a hard time standing. And so, some of the individuals -- and we're seeing this online. John, it broke my heart reading just the FaceBook page of the Bay County Sheriff's Office of people saying, I didn't think it was going to get this bad. My home's only two stories. We're just at sea level. I don't know what to do now. Can you come help me? Can I go somewhere? And for them to have to say, please, just stay where you are, shelter in place because we can't come get you during the storm. Emergency vehicles cannot brave this either.

BERMAN: Yes. Obviously there's one problem where we're standing, and that's the wind. You can see the wind that we're dealing with right now. Sustained -- I would say easily over 100 miles per hour now with gusts definitely north of that. About a mile that way is the coast, is the beach itself. That is where the storm surge is. That's where people, if they decided to stay, they might need to be rescued.

And, Dianne, you hit on one point, I hope you can hear me, I don't know if you can because of the wind here. GALLAGHER: A little bit.

BERMAN: One of the things that I sensed in people's voice this morning when I was speaking to them is regret. And I haven't heard that before covering a storm.

GALLAGHER: No.

BERMAN: People who made the decision to stay, sounded to me like they were sorry they did.

GALLAGHER: Yes. When we were covering Hurricane Florence, I was in New Bern, where there was a significant amount of flooding. It was catastrophic. And I heard people say, my home's never flooded before, that's why I didn't evacuate. If you're on this island here, you knew that you were going to get slammed with a hurricane. Category two or category four, you were going to get slammed. Now, again, there are reasons why people don't evacuate, but there are reasons why people don't evacuate. And I understand that. But everybody should.

And, again, everybody -- we can get to safety in a couple of minutes. I know it is. But we knew we were going to get slammed with -- wow, there we go.

BERMAN: All right, I don't know if you can see that, but if the camera can push into that metal sheeting. Dianne, come a little bit this way. You can see that metal sheeting over there. If you can push in and you can see it now flying past. We're protected. We're in a little inlet (INAUDIBLE).

Just over here if you can, actually, come over here (INAUDIBLE). I just want people to see. Those are the kind of projectiles that are blowing through. Those are gutters, maybe they were gutters at one point where they were on -- whether they were on a building, siding, maybe metal siding. And that just flew through. Imagine that hitting you or hitting a car, siding, metal siding, imagine that hitting you, you know, at 100 miles an hour or even hit your car if you're trying to drive at 100 miles an hour now, which I can't imagine people are doing.

[13:25:09] GALLAGHER: You know, John, I think it also illustrates the point as to why emergency officials can't come rescue you during a hurricane like this. It it's a matter of callousness or that they don't want to help. It's quite the opposite. As soon as this storm passes, they've already said, we're going to go out, clear the roads to the hospitals, go to people that have been calling us and try and help them. But they can't drive -- they can't do stuff like this. Sorry (INAUDIBLE) over here.

BERMAN: Yes.

GALLAGHER: They can't do stuff like this when you have projectiles like this flying through the air. And, again, we're sort of.

BERMAN: Right.

GALLAGHER: We're a little bit shielded by these winds. We're not experiencing the full force of these winds right now.

BERMAN: I think that's an important point. Another piece going right there. We're a little bit sheltered. We're not getting the full force. And I don't think this is the worst of it yet.

We're going to speak to our meteorologist in just a moment to get a sense of when the eyewall itself will make landfall and when the strongest winds will be.

Wow, look at that siding just pulled over there, and look at the -- the railing, which looks like it's even bending a little bit.

GALLAGHER: I will tell you, John, there were more signs on the railing when I started this morning. Those signs have been ripped off. We had some drains -- some like the drainage pipes here were also ripped off of the building that we're taking shelter in as well. We've been carefully watching a sign that's on top of the building, a La Quinta Inn, watching the sign to make sure that it doesn't blow off right here.

You know, we talk about all the water and the rain, and that is very significant because water kills, wind injures. But this wind could also do the same because of those projectiles here.

BERMAN: Right.

GALLAGHER: This is intense.

BERMAN: All right, Dianne, come with me. We're just going to walk back to the camera so they can see us and we're going to throw back to Wolf here, but we just want to say hi, so you can see that we're here, we're safe.

Wolf, we're going to go back to you for a second while we assess our situation.

Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, access. Be careful. All of our viewers are obviously and understandably very, very concerned. We'll get back to both of you guys, Dianne Gallagher, John Berman, doing amazing reporting for us.

We're going to take a very, very quick break, resume our special coverage. Hurricane Michael making landfall this hour.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, John Berman in Panama City Beach, Florida, where the winds now are blowing as hard as we have seen them. This has to be sustained winds of 100 miles an hour or so.

I'm standing near the corner of a building that's giving me some protection, some protection. And it's still not enough to keep me upright easily. We've been watching very closely at the trees, and some of the debris that's been flying around. There's some metal siding over there that you can see that it's already been ripped off buildings and flying down the street here.

The eye of the storm, obviously very, very close to shore, if not already on shore. And you can just see the damage that will be done as this passes through with these winds of 145 miles per hour or, in some cases, even greater.

[13:30:05] The hurricane force winds extend about 45 miles from the core. The tropical storm force winds, even beyond that. This is a very big storm.